1 The River (Chapter 1)
Nothing.
Cold, unforgiving, unfeeling nothing.
Where am I? Where is this place? It's cold. Really cold. Like water… yeah, like a deep, frozen ocean. Or maybe a river? A river… yeah, that sounds right to me.
I feel numb. Like everything is dulled. I can't feel my body, I can't feel anything other than the cold. My emotions aren't much different. I don't feel any anger, fear, happiness, or any of the usual emotions. The only thing I really feel right now is confusion, very faint confusion, but it's there.
I try to move, but my body won't budge. I try to turn my head but it won't move either. What should I do? I ponder the question to myself for a while, before settling on just staying where I am. If I can't do anything, why bother? So there I sat for a while, in the cold darkness. Until finally… one of my fingers twitched.
It twitches again, and slowly but surely, feeling returns to my right index finger, and then my middle finger, and so on. Feeling returns to my hand not long after and I manage to make a fist. I'm overjoyed at the progress… I think? It's hard to tell, considering the fact that my emotions are numbed, but I'll work with it. Now time to see if I can get the rest of my joints and limbs to move. I try to move my legs, my arms, my head, fingers, anything… but it seems only my hand is capable of moving… Maybe we work from there?
I try to focus on the feeling of movement, on the clenching of my fist. I focus on every movement within the bones, the muscles, the very blood that flows through me. But all I feel is the distinct lack of warmth. I then realize… my blood isn't pumping. The realization freezes my mind. I now understand why I feel so cold, why I'm so numb.
I'm dead.
I am dead. The realization keeps echoing through my mind. I can't focus, I can't think… I feel tired.
I begin to slowly close my eyes, feeling a sense of peace echo through me as I finally re-what the hell am I thinking? I don't wanna rest! I want to live, I want to get out of here! My eyes go wide, and another realization occurs to me.
I slowly begin to focus on the feeling of warmth in my hand. The feeling of warm, flowing blood in my hand. The feeling of being alive. The feeling then begins to spread.
It starts from my hand, then it begins to spread from my hand to my arm, and I feel warmer. My arm can move now. I focus on it even more. I need to spread this warmth throughout my body. I want to live again. I won't let this nothingness stop me.
The heat within my body becomes warmer, and it spreads to my chest and then to my left arm, and then to the rest of my body, but something is missing… I don't feel alive, but I feel warm.
Now that my body can move, I look around me and I realize something… I'm not the only one here. An innumerable number of beings were right next to me. Cold bodies as far as the eye could see, all of them right below me. I begin to notice something… off. A lot of these bodies aren't human? I decided to go investigate. I moved closer to a body, one that looked like a… cyclops? It had grayish-blue skin, and a singular vertical eye. Not to mention the fact that it was humongous compared to the human corpses around it.
I looked around some more and found that there were more of these bodies in a certain direction, so I began to follow these corpses. They led to what seemed to be a veritable mountain of bodies, with each giant corpse only growing larger. Some wore plate armor, others wore robes, and some just wore garments made of leather…
And then I noticed it.
It looked like those cyclops, but it towered over all the others, a mountain. Covered in dull, silver armor, and next to it, a towering blade. I could feel the power emanating from it… I knew what I was staring at, within my very bones.
I was looking at a God. Or, at the very least, the corpse of a God.
Some part of me was compelled to go closer, to find out what this was. And so I did. I floated through the darkness, as I went closer and closer to the head of this divine remnant. And once I finally reached it, I found an enormous, empty eye staring at me. I stared back.
At this point, I could feel the sheer presence this being had. It felt like the sort of creature to shatter worlds and to rend continents asunder. I wonder how mighty it was when it still breathed?
I inched closer, until I could feel something beckoning me to touch the enormous eye, to see for myself what was really happening, and so I floated closer and closer and closer. I was a meter or two away from the eye itself, all I had to do was reach out and touch it.
I reach out my hand, and press it onto the eye… Nothing happened.
Everything was still for a moment, and I thought I was just going cra-
A torrent of memories came flowing in, cutting off my thoughts.
Memories of a mother and a father.
A giant gazing upon two graves.
Memories of the slow climb.
The very same giant had grown larger, stronger, faster. Plated in silver radiant armor.
Memories of Ascension.
The giant completed the ritual, and he began to fe-fj378762vgas9onbhqg
The memory cuts off.
Memories of a kingdom.
The great giant, now a king, gazing over a grand city covered in twilight.
Memories of a family.
The great giant now had a wife and children of his own.
Memories of a war.
The giant warring against dragons, birds of flame, and accursed creatures.
Memories of betrayal.
The giant had betrayed an ally, one with eyes of red.
Memories of the fall.
The giant stood, challenging the would-be Maker. He soon falls not long after.
Memories of his death.
The giant slowly sank into darkness, to be forever forgotten by the world.
Memori-I let go at that point. I didn't want any more memories. I don't know how I'm still intact after that much, but I'll take it. I began to slowly drift away from the corpse as I realized my predicament.
Aurmir.
The name may seem unimportant to a lot of people, but I knew that name. I knew it very well.
It was the name of the Giant King, God of the Twilight Giant Pathway… from a story I read so long ago.
Lord of the Mysteries. It was a novel I would gush over for hours, reading it in my free time and rereading it occasionally. I loved the characters, the worldbuilding, the action, and the twists. I absolutely loved the story… but how?
If Aurmir is dead, then why is he here? He's long gone, and his son had succeeded him millennia ago, unless…
I begin to frantically look around and a realization strikes me like a ton of bricks.
A river that's freezing, cold, and hosts the dead… I'm swimming in the depths of a fucking Sefirot, huh?
Just my luck… As I ponder in the darkness for a moment, I look at my hand and realize it's… different. It's a similar shade of color to the skin of the giants I saw before. And I see strange, bluish-black blood in my veins. Is that giant blood?
I look back at the corpse of Aurmir, staring into the dark, vertical eye that he has, and I begin to swim away. Shouldn't focus on that right now. What I should focus on is getting out of the river. So I decided to swim up.
I keep swimming and swimming, hoping for something to come by soon. Something to tell me I'm making progress. And I found it. Another giant figure, but this one seems more… alive. A man the size of a mountain, with red flowing hair, and robes like rusted steel. I begin to smell the stench of blood and gunpowder, and I realize who this is. Alista Tudor.
He seems focused on attempting to leave the river, grasping upwards, surrounded by countless figures, but he gets dragged down by a white hand, out of my sight, alongside the figures. I'm assuming that I'm getting close.
Going up is all I focus on. I keep going up for what seems like hours, or maybe even days, until I see a very distant light. My soul burns with joy, and I finally realize… the closer I get to the light, the more alive I feel. And so I swim like I've never swam before, hoping to reach the top.
With each passing second, my body grows warmer, and my heart begins to truly beat once more. The beating gets faster and faster, like a drum in my chest. All I can hear is the pounding of my heart, and the warmth of my blood as I finally arrive at the light and reach out-ah
"It's so warm…" Are the last thoughts that fly through my head as I finally black out.
